Sports and Taxis
Today we played Table Tennis (ping pong) and badminton with the Chinese students. We found out that even though Americans may be more active in the sporting lifestyle, the Chinese have skill and are very adept in what they like to play. Badminton and ping pong are two "sports" they enjoy playing in their free time, and both men and women can play them. One girl asked one of us what sports we were interested in, and an American girl responded "soccer, football, etc" and the Chinese girl was very surprised. She said those are sports for men and boys only. Women are treated as the weaker gender, which they typically are, but I am all for strong women. The US doesn't neccessarily stereotype women as the weaker sex anymore, but China definitely does.
Tongiht we took a taxi home from the restaurant we ate at. The taxi driver did not speak a lick of English, but he motioned that he understood some. I apparently said "ni hau" with a good accent, because he kept trying to talk to me in Chinese. Then he said something along the lines of "apparently all you know how to say is ni hau" but it was all in Chinese, so I nodded in agreement. It was an interesting cab ride, but even with all the traffic and almost no traffic laws, I feel more safe in a taxi here than in the states.